JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Defense attorneys for Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez filed a new motion to obtain jail phone records of Jared Bridegan’s admitted gunman, Henry Tenon, after he recently backtracked on his previous testimony saying it was false. The judge approved the motion on Wednesday morning.
Judge London M. Kite granted the motion to order the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to release Tenon’s jail calls. The motion came after a recent court filing revealed that Tenon, who had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against Gardner and Fernandez, is now changing his story.
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The judge also said Wednesday she would enter a new order authorizing the Secret Service to transfer encrypted evidence to the prosecution, so they can transport and deliver it to Thomas Gano, an attorney from West Palm Beach who was assigned to review the electronic evidence.
Gardner and Fernandez, both accused of orchestrating the murder of Bridegan, Gardner’s ex-husband, appeared in court Wednesday.
Bridegan, a 33-year-old father of four, was killed in an ambush-style shooting in Jacksonville Beach in 2022.
Defense Attorney Gene Nichols, who is not associated with this case, said Tenon’s statements could affect all the defendants in this case, and he might have talked about everything on the phone from jail.
“He wants to step forward and say something that he told them was incorrect and in his words ‘false,’ meaning he intentionally lied about something, presumably something very important to this case, presumably something having to do with the co-defendants,” Nichols said.
Nichols said Tenon’s statements could unravel everything.
“This could have broad, sweeping effect on every part of this case. If Tenon’s plan was to come into court and say what I said before about these co-defendants, or how this happened, or anything concrete, any part of this case was a lie, was not the truth, it’s going to have a tremendous impact on the prosecution in this case going forward,” Nichols said.
Previous evidence from 2023 includes calls Tenon made while behind bars at the Duval County jail. In one, he told an unidentified woman “It ain’t looking good, let’s put it at that…I’m probably going to be here for a while.”
“I wish you would call with good news like you’re getting released or something,” she said in a separate call.
“It don’t look that way anyways, so far, it ain’t,” he replied.
“Well, hopefully, they realize that it’s not you,” she added. The majority of the previously released call records are redacted, so the context cannot be confirmed.
Nichols also said the forensic evidence in this case may become more important if the prosecution is limited in what they can attribute to Tenon’s testimony now and in the future based on his credibility.
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A case management hearing for Gardner and Fernandez was scheduled for March 28 at 9:30 a.m.
Jury selection in the murder-for-hire case trial is scheduled for Oct. 20.